First Serious Sam 2 screenshots

This week has seen the release of the first two screenshots from the next-generation Serious Sam title, due out for the PC in the Autumn.

This week, Croteam, the developers, have been playing up the flexibility and power of their graphics engine. Roman Ribaric, CEO of the studio, said that "Gamers can rest assured that with the capabilities of our new engine, we're not only going to match the record we set with the first Serious Sam for the most enemies on screen at one time, we're going to surpass it."

Quite frankly, we can't wait. We know that the engine uses all sorts of 3D trickery, because ATI have been giving Croteam a lot of help with developing the title, and ATI are keen to make sure the world knows that. One of the key features will be 3Dc support, which will enable some fantastic quality normal maps in the game on hardware that supports it - which, of course, includes the current generation ATI hardware. We also understand that Nvidia are putting the finishing touches to their 3Dc implementation, which should hit FTPs shortly, as part of a ForceWare update.

The characters are rendered with a great many more polygons than the original, which means it's going to be something of a killer, performance-wise. If you haven't already, the non-stop outrageous Sam action might persuade you to fork out for a DX9 card.

The second screenshot looks to us rather like it implements HDR lighting support, but we haven't confirmed that yet.

There is a little more information over at fan site Seriously! They have level and enemy details, as well as the news that vehicles will be included in Sam for the first time. Article here.